There is some irony in all this. Strauss never intended to become
a voice for the deaf. "I fell into it... but once I was in, I was
hooked," she recalls. The author is not hearing impaired nor are
any members of her family. Yet from the time she was a teenager
growing up in Brooklyn, Strauss' interests lay in advocacy
causes, from the plight of little children teased at school because
their parents were deaf to protests against the Vietnam War. And
so when she entered Penn, her goal was always "to use the law
to improve society."

With J.D. in hand, Strauss signed on with Georgetown University
Institute for Public Representation, a public interest law
clinic that handled some disability rights issues. There she was
involved in legislation to expand voting rights for people with
disabilities. Later she was hired by the National Center for Law
and Deafness at Gallaudet University in Washington, a world
leader in liberal education for the deaf and hard of hearing. At
Gallaudet her career took shape.